Scibly

Scibly is an open-source, AI-native learning platform.

Introduction · Tech Stack · Self-hosting · Contributing · License

Introduction

Turn your existing knowledge into interactive learning experiences. Scibly is an open-source, AI-native learning platform that transforms documents and internal knowledge into structured, interactive courses in minutes.

Tech stack

• Next.js – framework
• TypeScript – language
• Tailwind – CSS
• Prisma – ORM
• PostgreSQL – database
• better-auth – auth
• tRPC – API layer
• Hocuspocus / Yjs – realtime editor sync
• Turborepo – monorepo build orchestration
• pnpm – package manager / workspaces
• Stripe – payments (ee/ only)
• Resend – transactional email
• PostHog – product analytics
• AWS S3 – media storage

Self-hosting

You can self-host Scibly for full control over your data. pnpm workspaces + Turborepo, three deployables and a shared package layer:

apps/
├── app/      # the product — course authoring, learning, notebook (port 3001)
├── web/      # marketing site: landing, blog, pricing, legal (port 3000)
└── collab/   # realtime collaboration server for the course editor (port 4000)
packages/     # shared code: db, auth, api, ui, i18n, email, observability, …
ee/           # enterprise-only code, separately licensed — see ee/README.md

Fastest path — Docker:

cp .env.example .env   # fill in COLLAB_TOKEN_SECRET, BETTER_AUTH_SECRET
docker compose up -d --build

Spins up Postgres and all three apps in one go. Full walkthrough, including deploying to a real domain and optional third-party integrations, is in docs/docker.md.

From source instead — Node ≥22, pnpm 10.33, a Postgres database:

pnpm install
# copy apps/app/.env.example, apps/web/.env.example, apps/collab/.env.example,
# and packages/db/.env.example to their .env counterparts and fill them in
pnpm --filter @scibly/db run migrate
pnpm dev

pnpm dev starts every app together (apps/app on :3001, apps/web on :3000, apps/collab on :4000). Full walkthrough, including what each environment variable is for and how to run a single app on its own, is in docs/setup.md.

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for how to get set up and what to run before opening a PR. Participation is governed by the Code of Conduct.

Reference docs:

• Architecture — apps, packages, and how they fit together
• Docker guide — self-host with docker compose up
• Setup guide — full walkthrough, every environment variable, running a single app on its own
• ee/ — the enterprise/commercial-only slice (billing) and why it's separate
• CONTEXT-MAP.md — the product's domain contexts and how they relate
• docs/adr/ — architecture decision records

License

Scibly is open core: everything outside ee/ is licensed under AGPLv3 — see LICENSE. The ee/ directory (Stripe billing) is the enterprise slice: source-available, but production use requires a separate license from Scibly — see ee/LICENSE. Why that split, and not more: see ee/README.md.